And the beat goes on. In case you’re as compulsive as me click here for a link to part 1 and click here for a link to part 2, click here for part 3, click here for part 4, click here for part 5, and finally click here for part 6. Without further ado here are more concerts I went to. Starting with a couple I forgot to mention in previous editions..
163. Silversun Pickups, Dandy Warhols – November 3, 2009 – Gibson Amphitheatre, Los Angeles.
164. Seu Jorge – July 27, 2013 – Hollywood ArtsPark – My thoughts, “He kept walking off the stage as feedback from the microphone reared its ugly head. Finally, five songs into his set, Jorge said some words in Portuguese and stomped off. His backing band looked confused for a moment before following him. The crowd booed.”
165. Jose Gonzalez – September 28, 2015 – Hollywood ArtsPark –My thoughts, “The singer is stoic, remaining calm through only a couple of technical problems with the sound, just as when a siren from the nearby street encroached on one of his songs. The only emotions he showed on the evening were heard via his soft, though direct and precise, singing voice.”
166. Chris Cornell – October 29, 2015 – Arsht Center, Miami – My thoughts, “Still, the impressive range of Cornell’s set list didn’t stop fans from shouting out song titles they wanted to hear. He had to explain that many of the songs in his catalog don’t translate into this format where it was just his voice, an acoustic guitar, and the occasional cellist accompanying him. Professor Cornell also taught us the cello could be a rocking instrument, as it was for the night’s renditions of “Black Hole Sun” and a cover of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life.””
167. Silversun Pickups – January 8, 2016 – Culture Room, Fort Lauderdale – My thoughts, “First coming to fame in 2005, Silversun Pickups brought an American angst edge to British shoegazing influences like My Bloody Valentine. On this night, they replicated their recorded work in a live setting so convincingly that it kept possibly one of the more polite crowds in human history locked in place. By the time they finished their main set with “Lazy Eye,” the best Smashing Pumpkins song Billy Corgan never wrote, there was finally some jumping and hair flailing in the crowd.”
168. Peppa Pig – January 23, 2016 – Fillmore Miami Beach – I admit to getting a little teary eyed reading about taking my then two year old to this play that I’ll classify as a concert. My thoughts, “The plot from what I could piece together was that there was a hole in the school’s roof and Peppa and her friends threw a fair to raise money to fix the roof. There was a scene with talking pineapples that had the parents behind me joking in a South American accent about LSD. At this point I got a little distracted because my daughter began swinging from the waist high bar in front of us. She’s not the toddler equivalent of the friend who when they get drunk passes out, she’s the one who dances on the tables.”
169. Colin Hay – January 29, 2016 – Parker Playhouse, Fort Lauderdale.
170. Bryan Adams – February 20, 2016 – Fillmore – My thoughts, “A little after 8 p.m., Adams walked on to the stage with gelled hair and a sports coat that would have him perfectly comfortable at a hedge-fund manager’s summer mixer. Backed by his longtime guitarist, bassist, drummer, and keyboardist (whom he refers to as the Dudes of Leisure), Adams came out with the earnest, high-energy bar-band rock ’n’ roll of “Do What Ya Gotta Do” followed by “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started.” The music was fine. The Dudes of Leisure all had chops, Bryan’s voice sounded good, his diction clear enough so his lyrics could fit whatever product advertisers might wish to sell you. The music was the soundtrack of a million midlife crises, bringing the crowd back to a past that — for one Saturday night anyway — they could believe was still in their future.”
171. Okeechobee Music Festival – March 4-5, 2016 – Going over the review this Central Florida festival had a better line-up than I remembered. Robert Plant, Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington, Portugal the Man, Hall & Oates, Shabazz Palaces. What I remember most was how long it took me to figure out how to set up the tent I slept in.
172. of Montreal – April 1, 2016 – Culture Room – My thoughts, “To great cheers, out came singer Kevin Barnes, his silky and well-conditioned hair and magenta shirt flowing. He played the guitar and sang in a more subdued fashion than is generally the case at of Montreal shows, allowing himself to stand out as the straight man amidst all kinds of shenanigans.”
173. The Cult – April 16, 2016 – Fillmore – My thoughts, “The Cult couldn’t have a more fitting name. If a Druid or Dionysian from centuries ago time traveled to the Fillmore this past Saturday night, they could be forgiven for thinking that the concertgoers were actually religious followers gathering at a temple to witness some sort of holy ceremony.”
174. The Sword – May 10, 2016 – Culture Room – My thoughts, “The Austin, Texas, four-piece is classified by some as metal, and I suppose the fact the band has toured several times with Metallica could pigeonhole it as such, but it doesn’t play at such quick tempos. The group’s musicianship, and the fact that both bassist and guitarist harmonize with lead singer, almost nudges it into prog-rock territory. There’s Black Sabbath in the band’s DNA for sure, King Crimson and Queens of the Stone Age too. Beyond categorization or comparison, though, the Sword’s music is something like the soundtrack to a ’70s-era teenaged boy’s life, music for rolling the 16-sided dice during a weekly game of Dungeons and Dragons.”
175. Trick Daddy – June 4, 2016 – Churchill’s, Miami – My thoughts, “After a rendition of “Thug Holiday,” he said he was going to play one more song and stayed true to his word, leaving through the door behind the stage not even 25 minutes after he’d entered. His extended crew followed him and the audience slowly realized that was it. His show lasted barely as long as it takes to watch an episode of your favorite sitcom. There were a couple of boos and a few chants of, “We want Trick.” But most of the crowd filed out resigned to the fact that Trick Daddy is thug enough not to care if he earns that cash from your wallet.”
176. Weird Al Yankovic – June 10, 2016 – Arsht Center – My thoughts, “Everyone should attend a Weird Al Yankovic concert once in his or her life. And probably only once.”
177. Steely Dan, Steve Winwood- June 29, 2016 – Coral Sky Amphitheatre – My thoughts, “This was the first band that made rock music for grownups. Rock ‘n’ roll from Elvis to the Stones to the Strokes was always three chords, crooning about lust with careless abandon. Steely Dan, meanwhile, wrote songs with complicated structures about regret and nostalgia. If the Beatles were what you played during your first kiss and the Cure was what you played during your first heartbreak, Steely Dan was the soundtrack for making your alimony payment.”
178. AC/DC with Axl Rose – August 30, 2016 – BB&T Center – Easily the loudest concert I ever went to. My thoughts, “It was terrible news for classic rock fans last March when AC/DC cancelled the last leg of the “Rock or Bust” World Tour because singer Brian Johnson was at risk for total hearing loss. At the time, the band announced it would make up the ten missed dates with a guest singer; we figured some shmoe from an AC/DC cover band would get the honor. No one dreamed the substitute could possibly be one of the most famous rock stars of all time: Axl Rose. But that’s exactly who sang “Back in Black” and “Highway to Hell” Tuesday night at at the BB&T Center. Axl’s distinctive high screams stood in sharp contrast to Johnson’s deep bellows, but the fact that Rose was singing only AC/DC songs backed by AC/DC made this concert something weird and unique and fascinating.”
179. Donovan – September 8, 2016 – Parker Playhouse .
180. Brian Wilson – September 14, 2016 – Hard Rock Live.
181. Slayer & Anthrax – September 28, 2016 – Fillmore – My thoughts, “If, as a child, the notion of mutilating the neighborhood cat made you a little squeamish, Wednesday night’s concert at the Fillmore Miami Beach probably wasn’t for you. One half of the all-time big four of thrash metal were in town — Slayer and Anthrax — and an army of their fans, clad in black, were ready and eager to bang some heads.”
182. iii Points – October 7-9, 2016 – Wynwood.
183. The Dandy Warhols – October 1, 2016 – Culture Room.
184. Peter Hook & The Light – November 18, 2016 – Culture Room.
185. The Flaming Lips – November 19, 2016 – North Beach Bandshell.
Starring Pablo Chiste 